


Foundations of Brewing

by sungrass



Category: RWBY
Genre: First year at beacon, Gen, Pre Volume One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 06:39:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8787565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungrass/pseuds/sungrass
Summary: Team CFVY is renowned as one of Beacon's finest huntsmen teams, paragons of teamwork, skill, and huntsman conduct. But that wasn't always the case...





	1. Chapter 1

“That was garbage. Seriously, did someone swap the team I assembled in the Emerald Forest with a bunch of junior trainees? A team from Signal would have done better than that!”

Coco spat on the floor of the Bullhead as she steadied herself with one of the handles on the ceiling. She looked back up and glared at each of her team members in turn. They had technically completed their assignment to eliminate part of a pack of Beowolves and no one was seriously injured, but the mud, cuts, and scrapes covering their bodies spoke to how close they had come to failure.

Coco’s eyes flicked to the opposite wall where the other team on board was looking out the windows or at the ceiling with remarkable focus. Their leader, a girl with flowing royal blue hair was trying so hard to ignore them she was actually blushing. _Your loss, Azul_ Coco thought. _You’ll be missing Class-A instruction in how to deal with your team._ Her head snapped back to the closest member of Team CFVY.

“Yatsuhashi!” He met her eyes, his face unreadable. “Your technique was good, but you let the pack bait you out of position. They got within a meter of the bullhead’s perimeter. If this had been a real mission without a teacher waiting to kill anything that got past our lines, that wouldn’t just have meant a failed mission. It would have meant dead civilians or destroyed evac. Don’t let it happen again.”

“Understood,” He replied.

Coco nodded, satisfied, then walked in front of the boy with the gauntlet blades.

“At least Yatsuhashi made a smart mistake. You could have gotten killed.”

Fox glared back at her, arms folded, leaning back in his seat. “You mean I could have stolen your spotlight.”

“My Aura reserves are four times the size of yours. After Yatsuhashi, I’m the best suited to frontline combat. You’re lucky you didn’t overtax your pathetic stamina, because if you had slowed down you’d be dead.”

“Whatever.”

Coco grunted and slapped the back of his head. He looked up, ready to pounce on her, but Yatsuhashi laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Fox puffed and resumed his languid brooding.

Coco looked over to her last teammate. _And then there’s this loser._

Velvet sat hunched over, her head drooping. The Faunus girl had done such a good job making herself inconspicuous that Coco wryly mused if she had an invisibility semblance. She crouched in front of the girl, so she was at eye level. Velvet looked up. She hadn’t been crying, but it looked like she would start bawling if Coco so much as breathed on her the wrong way.

“Did you even try to fight?” Coco asked. “I don’t know why you think you belong here, but you seriously need to reconsider your life choices.”

Velvet whimpered and stared at her feet. Coco stood up, walking past the empty seat on her team’s bench towards the seat against the wall that separated the cabin from the cockpit, her cavalry sabre knocking against her right hip, punctuating her steps. She collapsed into it in a controlled manner, wincing inwardly at the cold, squishy feeling of mud oozed under every thread of clothing. A pea-sized dollop fell from her beret onto her nose.

_Merde._

…

Beacon’s courtyard was silent in the early morning, save for a steady _puff-clap, puff-clap_ , sound like a tiny steam engine. Coco sprung up from a push-up, clapped her hands together beneath her, caught herself in the starting position, and repeated the exercise over and over. After a few minutes she paused and reached over to touch the back of her hand to the pair of boots sitting off to the side.

 _A few more minutes_ , she thought.

After arriving back at Beacon the previous night, her weapons had required only cursory maintenance, but her clothing had needed a thorough regimen of pre-treatment and hand washing, and her beret had been ruined. She had managed to get the mud off the boots, but by that time she had been too tired to properly polish them. So she rose an hour earlier than usual to treat them between sets of push-ups and crunches.

Coco would have been hard-pressed to pick a favorite accessory or piece of clothing, but if you asked her to only buy one type of expensive apparel for the rest of her life, she would have said boots. ‘ _Cheap boots are a sin_ ,’ Papa Adel would say. ‘ _But buy the right pair of quality boots, treat them with care and love, and you’ll never need another set of shoes._ ’ Aside from a pair of slippers, Papa had only owned a set of black Chelsea boots, with steel in the toes and deceptively thick soles. They had gone everywhere, protecting his feet at the construction sites of houses for rich Mistral citizens and shining like polished onyx when he discussed contracts in the construction company’s office.

So when Coco had started earning money in small Mistral tournaments and impromptu bouts at Sanctum, she saved and saved until she could afford a custom pair of knee-length boots. Kevlar plates in the shins; steel toe, sole and heel; covered in rich dark leather; and lined with an incredibly soft insole material that, though she wouldn’t admit it, even she couldn’t pronounce. The spike heels had been a questionable flair of vanity, but Coco had watched the Schnee heiress compete in a broadcast of some regional Atlas tournament. If that pampered twit could prance about in that ridiculous outfit and still perform with grace, surely she could as well. And they hadn’t failed her yet.

Coco sat up from a set of crunches and felt the boots again. Satisfied, she picked up a rag and started buffing them, contentment spreading across her face as they began to shine.

“Mes beaux amis,” she cooed.

…

By the middle of Port’s class, Coco’s mood had soured. His latest story had given her time to dwell on everything that had happened since arriving at Beacon. Things had started off well. She hadn’t been shy in spreading her reputation from Sanctum, but she had made sure to do it without boasting _too_ much. She circulated enough to figure out the prime candidates for her team, either by speaking directly to them or listening for promising rumors, then turned in early in a secluded corner of the great hall to research their backgrounds on her scroll before going to sleep.

Then things had started to go pear-shaped ever so subtly. Soon after landing in the emerald forest she encountered one of her prime candidates, Yatsuhashi Daichi—but not soon enough to partner with him. No big deal. Fox was one of the few students with little public information available, certainly not a first or second-tier pick. But between their common laconic natures and contrasting fighting styles, he worked well with Yatsuhashi. Not a detrimental wrinkle in the plan.

But then they heard the ursae and someone shouting for help. Coco had charged in, slashing with her blades before one of them got a lucky hit in and sent her flying. Her aura let her take the brunt of the hit, but then she heard a squeak of fear and looked up. Without even seeing her in action, Coco’s heart sank. She had just been partnered. With little. Velvet. Scarletina.

Coco broke from her reverie to stare down her nose at the Faunus girl two seats away, hunched over like she could sense Coco’s scorn. Velvet was smart, and quick enough to outrun a slow grimm, but she hit like a cotton ball, took hits like wet paper, and anything faster than a deathstalker would catch her in all but the shortest pursuits. Coco had told her to spend extra time sparring and building strength, but she disappeared at almost every moment she wasn’t required to be with the team.

Despite Coco’s suboptimal partner, finishing initiation hadn’t been a complete disaster. Velvet had required near-constant protection, but she had been somewhat useful when they reached the relics. Coco had sent her to grab two matching pieces while the rest of them held off two massive grimm. Fox and Yatsuhashi killed a deathstalker while Coco had singlehandedly defeated what Professor Port later confirmed to be the largest ursa ever recorded in the emerald forest. Afterwards, CFVY was formed, Ozpin had assigned Coco to be their leader, and stories of her ursa fight were already buzzing around the school. Maybe she had overreacted to Velvet.

But Velvet had only been the beginning. Coco glanced at the massive boy between them, then up at the orange-haired one three seats over and one row back, reclining in his chair.

Yatsuhashi was okay. He was a competent fighter and strong. His speed was lacking and he occasionally made poor strategic decisions, but he dutifully worked at improving these weaknesses and took criticism without hesitation. Best of all he also obeyed without hesitation on and off the battlefield. After their first post-initiation defeat he immediately agreed to Coco’s suggestions of extra training.

Fox was another story. He had acted somewhat aloof following initiation. But aloofness turned to mild irritation, which turned to full-blown scorn and rebellion when Coco raised the subject of physical conditioning. He frequently disobeyed orders and resisted criticism, responding to the simplest of requests with sarcasm and brooding, if not outright pretending he hadn’t heard. He was more capable than Velvet, but ultimately less useful. Velvet at least tried to obey orders most of the time.

Coco rubbed her temples, frustrated. The building blocks were there, but half her team would never become competent huntsmen if their current situation didn’t change. They would run the gauntlet with the other first-year students after today’s classes. Maybe she could make it a turning point for her team.

…

 “Move it CFVY, let’s go!”

Within two minutes of starting the gauntlet, Coco’s idle hopes had evaporated. Nothing like a race through an obstacle course to make you miss sparring.

As they crested the hill towards the final stretch they came across a winding downhill trail with targets lining either side. At the bottom, far off in the distance, was a tall smooth wall separating them from the finish line. A long open space bordered with upperclassmen lay between the wall and the bottom of the hill. Coco quickly took it all in, barking orders without slowing down.

“Velvet, Fox, take the targets on the left; Yatsuhashi you’re with me on the—“

Fox dashed ahead, taking the destroying every target on the right. Coco grit her teeth, cursing. She switched to the left side of the trail, striking the targets Velvet missed or couldn’t break, which was most of them. At the last target she leapt and clenched her fist, converting the rings on her right hand into the brass knuckle portion of her trench knife. Flaring some stored dust, a blade of pure flame erupted from the bottom of her fist, shattering the last target into charred splinters as she struck it.

Now the fun really began. Officially none of them had been told what would happen, but they’d heard plenty of rumors. Plus, you’d have to be dumber than a sack of bricks to not figure out why there were crowds on each side of the final stretch.

Coco made it a quarter of the way to the wall before the first projectile hit, the tomato hitting her ribs. “Oh, be original!” she shouted over her shoulder. A second later a hard rubber ball the size of a tangerine struck her shoulder blades, and she immediately cursed her temper.

A blur of motion caught her eye coming from behind and to her right. Velvet shot forward, ducking and weaving enough to avoid most of the projectiles. When she neared the wall, she hopped, landed in a crouch, and _leapt_ just high enough to catch the top edge. Even with an aura assist, the jump still made Coco slow a bit out of sheer amazement.

 _Try not to say anything stereotypical later,_ she thought.

But her cynicism soon rushed back. For a moment, it looked like Velvet’s upper body strength would fail her, but she managed to pull herself up all the way and toss the rope down. She waved her arms in encouragement, but that only served to draw fire from the upperclassmen. She tried to dodge atop the wall for a second, before disappearing down behind the wall to finish the course.

Coco spared a glance back. Yatsuhashi was shrugging off everything they threw at him and moving fast for a person his size, but he still presented a large, comparatively slow target. As for Fox…

She cursed again. Fox was reasonably strong, displayed polished technique in combat, and might have been the fastest huntsman in their year—but they would never find out for sure because his stamina was so low he had burnt the last of it up dashing down the hill when he defied Coco. Now he was stumbling along half-hunched, gasping for breath, the little air he inhaled getting knocked out of him by the heavy volume of projectiles striking him.

Coco reached the wall, with Yatsuhashi following close behind. She climbed the rope until she was just over his head, and looked back. Fox was deflecting some of the things thrown his way with his blades, but it looked as if he was moving even slower. Coco growled, frustrated, and dropped back to the ground.

“You go first!”

“But—“

“Do it!” she shouted, running back from the wall.

They met just past the middle of the clearing, Coco turning and skidding to a stop under Fox’s left shoulder in a single, if awkward and lurching movement. She wrapped her right arm around his waist and brandished her sabre with her left. Half-running, half-dragging Fox, Coco made her way back to the wall, deflecting as much as she could with her sabre, though much of the incoming fire struck true.

“Can you even climb?” she asked, once they reached the rope.

“Can you give me two minutes or so?” Fox said, his ragged breath slurring his words.

Coco grunted, sheathing her sabre. “Just follow my lead and wait here.”

She took the rope and coiled a few feet of it around his right arm, placing the end of it in his hand. Then she scaled the wall, climbing the rope with her feet planted on the wood, trying not to lose her grip as she was pelted with more mud and fruit. Near the top, what felt like a frozen lemon nailed her in the temple and she flinched, her feet slipping off the wall. She dangled for a moment, swinging like a drunken pendulum, almost losing her grip. But she clutched the rope harder and pulled herself the rest of the way up. When she reached the top, she flinched as a large arm grabbed her wrist and yanked her up. Yatsuhashi was still at the top.

“Where’s Fox?”

“Taking a breather,” Coco said, irritated. “How’s your aura looking?”

“57 percent.”

Coco grinned. “Perfect. This’ll be easier than I thought. Think you can jump down from up here?”

Yatsuhashi blinked, confused for the briefest moment, before nodding, an understanding smile spreading across his face. He wrapped the rope around one arm, took in the slack, and jumped to the ground below. Coco turned, ready to grab Fox, when he neared the top, only for his body to fly over the wall and crash into her. They tumbled back off the top, falling. Coco flared her aura, bracing for the impact, but stopped six feet short of the ground when Yatsuhashi caught them around the midsection, one in each arm. Coco gasped, pain flaring through her ribs and gut. They both struggled to catch their breath as Yatsuhashi carried them another ten yards to the finish line, setting them down in the shade of a tree once they had crossed it.

Fox moaned, managing to flash a thumb’s up in gratitude to Yatsuhashi before curling in a loose fetal position. Coco sprawled on her back, panting and trying very hard not to black out.

“Nice job big guy,” she said, then muttered to herself “Son of an ass, that hurt.”

…

They watched five other teams take their turn as they rested, drinking water and eating rations provided to help them recover. Then Professor Goodwytch announced the results before she left. CFVY was last.

“This is bull,” Fox said, as they trudged back towards the center of campus. “I didn’t expect us to come out on top, but Velvet made the best time on the final stretch out of any of the others. Unless you saw someone else vault the ten-meter wall.”

“We’re only as fast as our slowest member,” Yatsuhashi said stoically. “I will do better next time.”

“We’ll _all_ do better,” Coco said. “We’ll be faster, stronger; we’ll listen better—“

“Why?” Fox asked.

Coco stopped, then turned around slowly.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Fox said. “Why should we listen to you? So you can grandstand and be the big shiny hero at every opportunity? Because that’s how most of our plans end up unfolding.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that carrying half the team—literally at some points—was considered grandstanding.”

Everyone had stopped now. Velvet looked nervously between her three team members, while Yatsuhashi watched them unmoving. The other teams of junior huntsmen had paused in a loose crowd around them, rooted by the tension in the air.

Ignoring them, Fox continued to stare down his leader. “It is when you don’t let your teammates do the jobs they can do better than you.”

“ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Coco shouted. She stomped over to Fox jabbing a finger into his chest. “Have you forgotten how the time-trial just ended? How the last three missions ended?”

“No,” Fox shouted back. “And every time I’m astounded that this little princess from Sanctum who can’t fight manages to come back without any serious injuries.”

“ _I_ can’t fight? I’ve been defeated by _one_ person at Sanctum in the last three years. You think you could do better?”

“Yeah! My technique is way better than yours, I’m faster—“

“Speed means jack when you can only perform for five seconds!” Coco cut in.

“If that’s why you’re so bitchy all the time, I know some guys who can last longer.”

The crowd around them hooted and jeered at Fox’s comeback. He folded his arms, grinning. Coco gave a short, barking laugh, her mouth hanging open. She hung her sunglasses from the neck of her shirt, then said; “You wanna go, Fox?” She didn’t shout, but danger was woven into every syllable.

A crooked grin spread across Fox’s face. “I do actually. Hand-to-hand or fully armed?”

“Your choice. But I am partial to weapons.”

“Well golly-gee, we can agree on something.”

Coco smirked back at him. She hander her sunglasses and beret to Yatsuhashi, formed her trench knife, and drew her saber. Fox adjusted the straps on his blades and squeezed tight on the grips.

“Kura, care to judge?”

A girl in the crowd with messy black hair stepped forward between them. Fox and Coco stepped into fighting stances. Kura looked between them to ensure they were ready, then shouted “Fight!” jumping back.

Fox and Coco charged at each other, Fox making contact before Coco could even reach the middle of their impromptu ring. She deflected a few blows with her weapons, but for every successful block or parry Fox landed twice as many strikes. His knee flew under Coco’s arms into her stomach, causing her to drop her guard. Fox back-flipped, kicking Coco backward as he flew through the air, landing on his feet and raising his arms to the crowd’s cheers.

A burst of heat cut his celebration short, knocking him to the ground. He sprung back to his feet to see Coco brandishing her trench knife in a forward grip, its dust generating a thin bright tongue of flame as long as Yatsuhashi’s sword.

“Now who’s grandstanding?”

Coco advanced, flicking the knife back and forth, keeping Fox from closing in close. The blade’s incorporeal nature allowed her to move it far quicker than she had any right to, allowing her to shepherd Fox as she pleased. Fox spared a glance back as he flipped away from the blade’s strikes. He had managed to avoid any major blow, but she was successfully herding him towards a ditch.

 _Well,_ he thought. _Take the chance with the low ground or..._ He grimaced. This would probably sting.

He feinted two paces to his left, drawing Coco’s strike to her right, then charged forward, ducking under the dust flame. He winced as it grazed his back, then lunged at Coco. Coco tried to swing back towards Fox and block with her sabre but he knocked it away with his right arm and struck hard with his left.

The dust flame died out leaving only a brass knuckle with a small nib where the blade had been and Coco stumbled, falling onto her back. Fox stood, intending to strike again, then doubled over, panting from exertion.

“See, that’s why—“he stopped as he looked up.

Coco climbed to her feet. Her movements and breathing were labored, but she was standing. And she wasn’t nearly as winded as Fox.

Fox gave an animal shout and started to swing at her. Coco flared ice dust to make a wicked blade for her trench knife and parried each blow. They moved more like knights in heavy armor battering each other rather than unarmored fighters, each strike a forceful, but slow and ponderous movement. With each blow Fox delivered or received, some of the vigor drained from his movements. Coco tired as well, but at a far slower pace.

Fox made one final lunge, arms extended, but Coco sidestepped the attack taking the strike on her right arm—then slammed the hilt of her sabre into Fox’s head. Fox went down, sprawling in the dirt. He groaned and rolled onto his side, but he didn’t stand up again.

“That’s the match!” Kura shouted. “Coco’s aura is at nineteen percent; Fox’s is three percent.” Coco sighed, her shoulders sagging. It hadn’t been the toughest fight she’d ever won, but it would be memorable. She looked over to Fox, who had managed to climb to a sitting position. Comebacks ranging from pithy to outright venomous flowed through her head, each begging to be heard. Then Coco shrugged, sheathing her weapons.

 _No point in kicking him when he’s down_ , she thought. She walked over and extended her hand.

“I have to admit, you were pretty impressive a couple times back—“Fox swatted her outstretched hand away.

“Piss off.”

Coco glared at him. She opened her mouth to harangue him, when Yatsuhashi stepped between them. He handed Coco her belongings, then helped Fox to his feet before the two of them set off towards the school. Velvet looked between Coco and the rest of her team, then scurried off to walk behind the two boys. Coco stood dumbstruck for a moment, then grimaced, following her team back towards the dorms ten paces behind.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Coco awoke the next morning almost as irritated as when she had gone to sleep. The room had been filled with tension when they returned so Coco had gone to bed early. The others had done the same, though Coco thought she might have heard Velvet leave in the night. None of them were present the when she woke up. She exhaled in relief. The prospect of confronting them further didn’t intimidate her, but the previous day had left her drained. Bacon, pancakes, and coffee, _then_ confrontation.

The dining hall was half-full when she arrived. After loading her tray, Coco scanned the vast room for a place to sit, settling on the table where Teams AQUA and KNGT were eating. Azul Vapos came from a family of dust users; like the Schnees, but with less money and entitlement. Kura Kemuri came from an ordinary background, but she was one of the top Signal graduates that had started at Beacon this year. Both had been on Coco’s short list before initiation. Of course just because they couldn’t be teammates, that didn’t mean Coco couldn’t try to add them to her circle of influence. She shook off her irritation from the night before and smiled, waving as she approached.

 “Hey Kura, Azul! Mind if I join you guys?”

Azul seemed lost in thought. But Kura glanced up from her bowl of oatmeal and returned Coco’s greeting with a hesitant wave.

“Sure…” she said. She jumped as if she’d been shocked, turned to look back at one of her seatmates, then turned back to Coco. “The rest of your team sleeping in?”

Coco shook her head. “I don’t know where they are to be honest,” Coco replied, setting her tray down across from Azul. “I know Yatsuhashi does some solo training on Saturday mornings, and I’ve suggested Fox and Velvet do the same, but they were all gone when I woke up. For all I know, the other two are off screwing around somewhere. At this rate, I’ll only be able to field half a team when they hold the qualifiers for the Vytal Tournament.”

“The Vytal Tournament,” Kura repeated. “That’s…ambitious.”

“Are you guys going to enter?” she asked, looking to both captains.

“Probably,” Azul said, idly playing with a strand of her long blue hair.

“We haven’t seriously discussed it,” Kura said, gesturing to her team. “Not sure if we would make the cut, but we’ll certainly give the qualifying matches a shot.”

Coco chuckled. “So modest! Your team works great together.”

Kura gave her an awkward smile. “That’s kind of you to say.”

“Anytime,” Coco said. “If I could get Fox and Velvet to work half as well as your team, I’d say Team CFVY would be guaranteed to sweep the tournament.” Coco took a long sip of coffee. She perked up as an idea crossed her mind. “Hey, I’ve got some training I want to do after breakfast, but after lunch do you guys want to head into Vale? There’s a couple of cafes I’ve been dying to try out. I’ll wrangle who I can from my team and we can all go together. We’ll make an event out of it.”

Kura’s eyes widened. “Coco that’s a really cool idea, but we have—“

“Training,” a boy across from her replied.

“4v4 actually,” Azul replied. “In fact, we’re actually running behind schedule, _aren’t we Kura?_ ”

A strange look flickered across Kura’s face. “Oh gosh, we are! We’ll catch you later Coco.” Kura said, standing up. In the space of a few seconds, Coco was the only person left at the table.

_That was odd,_ Coco thought. She shrugged, attacking the rest of her breakfast, her thoughts returning to her rogue team members. Maybe she could compel Velvet into whatever remedial activities she came up with, but judging from her performance so far Coco doubted that she would ever be a good fighter. And finding ways to persuade Fox continued to elude her. He couldn’t be commanded, intimidated, or even bargained with. How did you negotiate with someone like that?

Coco rubbed her temples, massaging the beginnings of a headache away, then gulped down the last of her coffee. She’d think about this particular challenge later. Time to focus on herself.

_Conditioning’s out after the obstacle course yesterday,_ she thought, exiting the dining hall. _I should probably hold off sparring as well. I’ll knock out homework tomorrow, so that leaves brushing up on tactics and strategy._ Coco grimaced, but turned towards the library crossing the courtyard.

As Coco crossed a junction in the paths, a group of students rushed past her towards the bullhead docks, almost knocking her over. One stumbled and dropped a bag she had been carrying. Coco turned towards her snapping; “Watch where you’re—“

Kura looked up at from the bag she had dropped. Her cheeks flushed, then she snatched the bag off the ground and took off running. Coco watched her run and catch up with the rest of her team partway down the path. In the distance, Coco noticed several teams waiting for the next bullhead. Though she couldn’t make out too many details she did notice one student with a massive shock of blue hair.

Coco clenched her fists. Velvet’s cowardice, Fox’s insolence, and now people were lying to her. This was not how she envisioned her tenure at Beacon.

Coco growled and punched a nearby column, putting enough aura into the blow to make a small crack. She screwed her eyes shut and counted, taking a deep breath after every number. When she had counted to five, she reached into her pocket, pulling out her scroll.

“Coco?” Yatsuhashi asked.

“Hey big guy, want to do me a favor?”

“What is it?”

“You up to spar?”

…

Steel clanged on steel as Coco blocked Yatsuhashi’s great sword, his strikes driving her to the edge of the arena. Coco stumbled as he brought the blade down in an overhead strike, but she turned the fall into a sideways roll, rolled into a crouch, and sprinted around behind him, slashing his back. Yatsuhashi cried out, staggering forward and leaning on his sword. Coco pounced on him, reaching around his shoulders to press her sabre to his throat.

“That’s match!” she said.

“So it is,” he replied. Coco slid off Yatsuhashi’s back as he stood. The two of them walked over to the wall and laid down their weapons. Coco tossed Yatsuhashi a bottle of water, he caught it, and they sat resting against the wall, drinking in silence for a few minutes. Coco stretched, letting out a satisfied sigh at the soreness in her muscles.

“Thanks big guy, I needed that.”

“You did say we needed to practice more.”

“That’s not it. We do need all the training we can fit in, but honestly? I needed to blow off some steam.”

“Oh?” Yatsuhashi asked, his voice neutral.

“I’m worried about the team. Don’t get me wrong, you’re great! You’re a towering badass that gets better every time you swing your sword. Sure, you’ve got your flaws, but you work on them almost as much as Velvet studies. You’ll be a great huntsman.

“But I don’t think Velvet and Fox are ever going to hit your level, if they even graduate at all. They could be so much better—at least Fox could—but no matter what I say or do, they refuse to listen! It hasn’t gone unnoticed. People are starting to shun us because we’re running around like a bunch of amateurs.” She clenched her fists until they shook. “I’m supposed lead this team. How are we ever going to accomplish anything great if I can’t keep my huntsmen in line?!” She threw her hands up dramatically, letting them fall to the floor.

After a brief pause, Yatsuhashi said, “A salted field destroys fertile seeds.”

Coco looked over at him and gave him a wry look. “This is the biggest reason I like you, you get me. It’s the dead weights dragging us down, holding us back.”

“You misunderstand. Despite Fox and Velvet’s failings, your poor leadership is the greatest impediment facing our team.”

The words came out objectively enough, but Coco still felt like she’d been slapped. For a moment her mouth hung open, processing the words. Then she glared at her companion, climbing to her feet.

“No, no, no, not you too. I’ve had enough of this crap from Fox, the last thing I need is for my one capable huntsman to start with this too.”

Yatsuhashi looked up at her, a glimmer of contempt disturbing his usual placid face.

“I’d say it’s the first of several things you need to hear. How else do you explain why we lag so far behind every other first-year team at Beacon? With few exceptions, the rest of the first-years aren’t that much worse or better than us on an individual level.”

“Exactly! But with you and me pulling all the weight—“

“You don’t carry nearly as much as you think.”

“Oh really?” Coco said, folding her arms.

“You’re decisive and you lead by example when you tell us to train beyond the minimum. I’ll grant you that much. But you’re also arrogant, callous, selfish, and you drastically overestimate your skills—especially your fighting ability.”

“I just beat you with aura to spare!”

Yatsuhashi stood, stretching out an arm. “I was holding back.”

“Bull,” Coco spat.

Yatsuhashi picked up his sword, examining it in an offhand manner. Then he swung it down into the floor, sending a shockwave through the arena that knocked Coco to the ground. She climbed to her feet, wincing as she massaged her head and backside, shocked by the amount of force he had put out.

“You rely too heavily on your aura,” Yatsuhashi said, setting down his sword. “You win all your fights by enduring more hits than your opponent and striking back with brute force, giving you victories earned with instinct, poor form, and sheer will—not skill. Despite that, you still manage to win against better opponents. The only reason Fox can’t beat you is that he can’t take nearly the same amount of punishment that you can. It’s a big part of why he resents you.”

Yatsuhashi folded his arms, “You said one person beat you in your time at Sanctum. Who was it?”

Coco looked away. “Pyrrha Nikos…”

“Why do suppose that was? With all your extra work and that massive reserve of aura, why could you never beat her? Why was a girl a year behind you better?”

“I don’t know.”

“Because she can get out of her own head. We’ve never spoken, but you can see it in how she carries herself before matches, between rounds. Maybe she’s excessively harsh like you behind the scenes, maybe she’s nervous like Velvet. But you don’t maintain that level of success for so long unless you can set aside your emotions and self-deceptions in training and in the ring.”

Coco let out a harsh laugh. “Self-deceptions? I know I act like I’m money—I am—but I’m not stupid, I know I’m not perfect. So maybe I could be a better fighter, I’ll get better the more I—“

“Do you think being a sloppy fighter is why you’re having problems leading? Think about how you lead us.”

“I lead the team like future huntsmen.”

“And you lead us like minions, not teammates. How well do you know the team?”

Coco gave him a confused look. “Are you kidding? I know plenty about you guys, about our whole class. I researched everyone to scout teammates the night before initiation. Yatsuhashi Daichi:”

She held out her fingers and began ticking off points. “You learned most of your combat skills in the Daichi family dojo so you only spent one year at Signal before coming to Beacon, your family protects one of the largest enclaves outside the city of Vale, and the Daichi clan created some of the earliest dust-based artillery pieces.”

Yatsuhashi smiled. “You read my Signal bio and searched the CCT network.”

Coco grinned back. “Of course.”

“Then tell me, how many siblings do I have?”

Coco opened her mouth to reply, then froze, her heart lodging in her throat. Her face paled. Yatsuhashi’s smile faded to a look of unsurprised disappointment.

“I…” Coco said.

“Yes Coco. ‘I’. Is that your favorite word? It must be. Everyone and everything around you is just a stepping stone to your own personal goals—or an obstacle. You may know everything about our academic histories and fighting styles, but have you ever made an effort to actually _know_ anyone at Beacon? To ask Fox why he came here? Or Velvet, or me? If you had, you’d still have challenges. You’d still butt heads with Fox, but you’d be able to work together. Velvet might be braver, she might not, but at least she wouldn’t feel threatened all the time.”

“Are my words really so harsh?” Coco asked, her voice cold.

“They are when she thinks you’re a racist.”

“What? Why would she think that?” Coco asked, though a sinking feeling grew in her stomach.

“Think about it: Pretend you’re the only faunus among the all the new students, and not an imposing one like a bear either. Your skills are unpolished. You get partnered with a girl who wants nothing to do with you, who berates you at every turn far harsher than she does the boys on the team— _human_ boys. On top of that, she fails to recognize any improvement in your skills or any positive contribution you make to the team. Even if you weren’t a faunus, that would be a pretty hostile environment to live in, wouldn’t you agree?”

Coco suddenly felt very heavy, the sinking feeling spreading up from her stomach through her entire body. She leaned against the wall, sliding down it to sit on the floor. Yatsuhashi stood over her, engulfing her in his shadow.

“If you actually care about anything beyond your own petty wants, take a long look at how you’re actually perceived, not how you want the world to perceive you.”

With that, Yatsuhashi left Coco alone in the empty arena with her thoughts.


	3. Chapter 3

For the next several hours Coco walked aimlessly around Beacon, replaying the conversation in her head. At first, she thought of all the right comebacks she should have said to Yatsuhashi, wallowing in feelings of anger and vindication. But as she brooded, the comebacks fell flat and the rage sputtered out in the face of the truth. Memories of past victories made her spirits rise, but details she had conveniently overlooked—close calls and lucky wins—stirred doubt in her mind.

The rest of her thoughts were not so ambiguous. Looking back over the past weeks, every interaction with the rest of CFVY began and ended with how they would excel, how they would be the kings and queens of Beacon, how they would be the first team that people spoke of when they talked about the caliber of huntsmen the school produced. Even her conversations with students outside her team never strayed beyond school and training. Every moment had been about business and victory and glory, ostensibly for the greater good. In part, it was; but peel back the layers of rationalization, and at its core was a haughty girl trying to win back what she felt she deserved.

Although at that moment Coco felt what she deserved was a kick to the head. Morose, she wandered back towards the obstacle course from the previous day. It was as secluded as you could get without leaving campus, which sounded to Coco like exactly what she needed.

Only there was someone already there.

The beginning of the course was bordered by sheds that contained tools and spare equipment for the course. Someone had dragged out several training dummies, arranged them in a circle and was striking them rather quickly. Coco watched the figure spring back, turn in midair, and attack a dummy on the opposite side of the circle. She repeated this pattern, picking a random dummy across the circle each time. Whenever she leapt a pair of long ears trailed behind her head.

Coco smiled a bit, then the shame and guilt came rushing back. _Isn’t this what you wanted?_ She thought. _Just go back to the dorms and relax. Velvet’s getting with the program after all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it._ Coco took a step back, wanting nothing more than to distract herself from the pit in her stomach with an espresso and some sword sharpening. She clenched her fist.

 _Don’t kid yourself,_ she thought. _It’s broken. Now do something about it._

Coco rolled her shoulders, took a deep breath, and walked over to the circle of dummies. Velvet was so engrossed in her practice she didn’t notice Coco, even after she had stopped to lean against a dummy to catch her breath.

“Nice job,” Coco said. “I mean it.” Coco was pleasantly surprised that was the truth. Velvet spun around in alarm, shrinking back like she wanted to hide behind one of the dummies.

“Thanks…”

“Heh. All this time you’ve been training and I thought you’d been hiding from—” Coco stopped when she saw Velvet trying to edge backwards. She sighed and held up her hands.

“Wait, everything’s coming out wrong. Can we talk for a bit?”

“Talk?” Velvet said, hesitant.

“Just for a few minutes. After that, you do whatever you want.”

Velvet bit her lip, then straightened up. “Okay. Can you help me pack up first?”

“Sure.”

…

After storing the training equipment, the two girls walked back towards the center of campus, the sky turning orange. Despite her request, Coco found it hard to muster any words. Velvet waited, apparently unwilling to speak out of turn, so the two of them walked most of the way in an uncomfortable silence. As they neared the dormitories, Velvet took the initiative. She coughed.

“So, what did you want to talk ab—?”

“I’m sorry!” Coco said.

Velvet stopped, surprised. “Come again?” she said, tilting her head.

“I’m self-centered, mean, and tougher on you than the others. A lot of how I treat you is because I want the team to get better, but it’s also because I didn’t want you to be my partner and because I was taking my frustrations with Fox out on you. That was colossally unfair and I’m sorry. For all of it.”

Coco looked up at Velvet, who looked like she was trying to decide if she had hallucinated everything Coco said. She scrunched her face, confused.

“Why?”

Coco returned her confusion. “Why what?”

“What prompted this? You’re not exactly the type to admit you’ve made a mistake.”

Coco sighed. “I had a fight with Yatsuhashi after sparring. He told me some things that I didn’t want to hear about myself, and it made me realize how oblivious I’ve been to the effects of my actions. I focused so hard on making the team great, mostly for my own goals, that I forgot that a team is supposed to be about all of us, not just me. I saw everyone at Beacon as a burden or a stepping stone and I never took into consideration that how I act and speak might be interpreted differently if someone was…different.”

Velvet gradually relaxed, rising out of her usual timid slouch. “So you don’t care that I’m a faunus?”

Coco exhaled, relieved. “I only care if you can be a good huntsman. Seeing how much you’ve improved on your own, I don’t think I have to worry about that anymore. You’ll get there. You just need some support from your partner—if you’d like some, that is.”

Coco held her hand out to Velvet. For a moment it was difficult to say who looked more nervous. Then Velvet reached out, took Coco’s hand, and shook it, her grip gentle but firm.

“I would like that very much.”

Coco felt herself relax, tension departing her body. “Thank you.” She gave Velvet a perplexed look as they started walking again. “You accepted that a lot quicker than I thought you would.”

“Honestly,” said Velvet. “I’m feeling a lot of different things towards you now, most of them unflattering. Most of the other students don’t hate faunus, but they have plenty of reasons not to be friends with one. Fox doesn’t hate me like you did, but he’s solitary and not very personable. Yatsuhashi is kind enough, but I’ve never been good at establishing close male friendships. So when my partner and leader, someone who should have been my main source of support, turned out like you, I felt isolated to say the least.”

Coco’s cheeks burned red. Velvet’s hands clenched for a second, turning white, and then relaxed.

“But you’re very transparent,” Velvet continued. “You’re direct, and about as subtle as a brick to the face, so I have faith your apology was sincere. If you only cared about being a better leader, you would have just adjusted your approach without admitting you did something wrong. But you swallowed that immense pride of yours and apologized. That takes guts for someone like you.”

The corner of Coco’s mouth turned up. “If I didn’t know better, it sounds like you’re saying we’re square.”

“We’re not, but I’ve never been one for holding grudges. I think we’ll be on good terms much sooner than you think. Even if it feels a little surreal right now.”

Coco nodded in response. They had reached the main cluster of buildings and were walking by the statues bordering the courtyard, the setting sun reflecting off the marble. Looking at some of the great huntsmen of the past, a thought occurred to Coco.

“Velvet?”

“Yes?”

“My unkind opinions of you aside, I think we can both agree you’ve had to work a lot harder than the other first-years just to qualify for most of the practical and physical tests—that speaks volumes about you. I guess I’m just curious what makes you want to be a huntress so badly.”

For the first time since Team CFVY had formed, Velvet smiled at Coco. “It’s a long story, but the main thrust of it is that I’m filling a need. My family lives in a small faunus community outside of Vale. Because of our size and the proportion of faunus to humans, not many huntsmen protect us. The ones that do are typically nomadic ones that can’t stay for long. We’ve become adequate at protecting ourselves but adequate isn’t always enough with the grimm. Having reliable huntsmen around would make it much safer.

“Plus,” she said, scratching the back of her head, “There aren’t many prominent faunus huntsmen—or many at all for that matter. I thought maybe if more of us joined, it would help establish us as equals in the public eye.”

The two girls paused in silence taking in one of the more impressive statues. After a while, Coco broke it, saying; “Those are some damn fine goals.”

Velvet gave Coco an odd look. “I’m tempted to ask what yours are now.”

Coco shrugged. “They’re not nearly as noble as yours. That’s a tough act to follow.”

“Wow. Is Coco Adel, the Terror of Sanctum, scared to open up to her partner?”

Coco rounded on Velvet, only to find her struggling to keep from giggling. Coco smirked.

“How about we hit the dining hall before it closes? I’ll tell you my story over dinner, and then you tell me the long version of yours. Deal?”

“Deal!”


	4. Chapter 4

Dinner had left Coco feeling radiant and warm. Despite the occasional awkward pause or uncomfortable turn in the conversation, Velvet grew more animated as the meal went on. By the time they left the dining hall, she looked more relaxed than Coco had ever seen her. Elated by her success, Coco wanted nothing more than to celebrate by cracking open the bottle she hid in the room for special occasions and splitting it with her partner; Yatsuhashi too if he was around.

But instead they parted ways outside the dormitory, and Coco made her way to the machine shop in the Beacon armory.

 _Now the real fun starts,_ Coco thought.

The machine shop was a massive room filled with rows of workbenches, several forges, lathes, and other large machines. A pegboard filled with every hand tool imaginable ran along the longest wall, a cage at one end containing more dangerous tools like welding torches and plasma cutters. Coco walked towards a cluster near the center of the opposite wall where the shop’s only occupant stood honing one of his blades on a large grinding wheel.

Coco watched for a moment, wincing at the sound the wheel made when it came into contact with the blade. Fox’s usual surly scowl was gone. Instead, his face was placid as he slid the blade across the wheel with a light touch. He looked more like a violinist blissing out in some cozy little practice room than a huntsman maintaining a deadly weapon. He turned to set the blade down on a workbench, then noticed Coco. The scowl returned. He shut off the wheel, then yanked his ear protectors down around his neck.

“What?”

Coco held her breath for a moment, biting back her kneejerk reply to his curt greeting. “I came to apologize.”

“And here I was expecting Part Two of ‘Coco is Never Wrong’.”

“I’ve been mean,” she said, fighting to resist Fox’s baiting, “self-centered, callous, and arrogant. It’s held me back from improving myself, and it’s holding back the rest of CFVY as well. I want to stop screwing everyone over and make us functional. I need to make amends to do that.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Fox said, turning back towards the wheel.

“Hey, I don’t expect us to hold hands and skip around campus, but can’t we at least be civil enough to work together?”

“I can’t work with someone who refuses to acknowledge her weaknesses.”

“Then tell me what they are.”

Fox paused. He leaned back against a workbench and folded his arms, giving Coco a quizzical look.

Coco sighed, her cheeks flushed. “Yatsuhashi said I rely too much on my aura and instincts to get me through fights. I didn’t want to admit it, but looking back it makes sense. I was tougher than all my opponents at Sanctum by a huge margin and the differences in skill level were so close that, with one notable exception, I could just muscle my way through all my opponents. That doesn’t work anymore so I need to adapt. Help me adapt, please.” Coco suppressed a shudder. Every word tasted like bile coming out, but Coco had managed to say them.

“Wow,” Fox said. “Yatsuhashi finally cracked. No wonder you had an epiphany. But since you asked, it’s not just using your aura as a crutch and poor form: You’re also not built to be a speedy fighter like me or Velvet, but you keep trying to fight that way. You _are_ tough, and you can chug along for a lot longer than most people, but you just don’t have a sprinter’s physique. That sword of yours is best suited to a style of combat you will never master. It’s holding you back, ingraining bad habits into your fighting style.”

Coco frowned. Her bladework had always been acceptable, but her footwork _had_ plateaued for at least a year despite her increased drilling.

“I could work on my agility.”

“You could, and you should, but you’re forgetting we’ll be fighting more grimm than humans. Your style makes you look impressive against large slow grimm in small numbers. But if you had to fight large numbers or something fast—like a full pack of beowolves or a king taijitu—you’d be finished. Let’s also not forget that dust knife is the closest thing you have to a ranged option. That makes you almost useless against anything airborne.”

Coco narrowed her eyes at Fox. “You have no ranged options.”

Fox shrugged. “That’s a smaller liability when you’re mobile as I am.”

Coco wrestled the urge to criticize Fox’s stamina. She took a deep breath, then asked; “So what do you suggest?”

“Well you can take a hit, I’ll give you that. You block well, even if you’re a little slow. You absorb blows that get past your guard correctly, and that’s before you take your aura into account. Your speed means you won’t be an effective vanguard, but you could flank or guard the back of formations. If you picked up a ranged weapon you’d make yourself much more versatile.” He shrugged again, palms turned up. “But what do I know? My family’s only been some of Mistral’s top weapon-smiths for six generations.”

Coco took a moment to process everything Fox had said. “Thank you. I’ll have to think about what I’m going to use to replace _Récolte Rouge_.” Coco looked wistfully down at the Adel family sabre.

“Always glad to be of service,” Fox said, his voice thick with sarcasm. “Now beat it so I can finish working.”

Coco glared at Fox as he turned back to the wheel, finally losing patience. She strode over to the wheel and yanked the cord out of the wall before he could turn it back on.

“Hey!” he said.

“After all that, you’re still going to be a prick?” Coco asked.

“I got to see you humble yourself. I’ve had my fill of playing along for now.”

Coco seized Fox by the collar and slammed him into a nearby wall, locking eyes with him. “Good, because I’m not playing around.”

Fox scowled at Coco. “Adel, if you don’t let go…”

“Listen, even though your ‘help’ was yet another way to be an asshole, everything you said was right. But you’re not the only person who can’t work with someone who refuses to acknowledge his weaknesses.”

Fox brought his head down, smashing his forehead into Coco’s. She saw stars and her grip loosened for a moment. Then she shook her head and head-butted Fox back twice as hard, catching him on the jaw. Fox fell to the floor, clutching his face. Coco stepped to loom over him.

“I’ll make this simple. You don’t like me, and I sure as hell don’t like you, but we’re in this together for the next four years, so we might as well try to get along. To frame things in terms I think you’ll like, you have a choice: you can spend all your time tinkering with your weapons and practicing technique to compensate for having lungs like a sick child’s, and maybe you’ll beat me a couple years down the road.”

Fox clenched his fists and readied himself to spring back up. Coco pushed him back down with her foot.

“Or,” she continued. “You can start running and conditioning your body to patch your weaknesses, and beat your sloppy blowhard team leader a lot sooner.” She grabbed Fox and yanked him to his feet.

 “I’ll let you think about it,” she said, before leaving the workshop.


	5. Chapter 5

Most Sundays Coco slept in, but this time she sat up right after waking. Velvet was still curled up on her side, her ears drooping over her face. Unsurprisingly, Fox was gone after last night’s exchange—but Yatsuhashi was missing too, his scroll sitting on his freshly made bed. When he didn’t return by the time Coco finished dressing, she set out to find him.

Her search of the grounds and the arena found both empty. The library would be closed until noon, and the classrooms themselves wouldn’t open until the following day—but the dining hall would open in ten minutes. Coco arrived just after it opened and saw a familiar figure pass among a handful of early-risers and settle down in the far corner with a bowl and a mug.

“I should have just waited for you here,” she said as she drew close. “But I thought it would be easy to find where you meditated.”

He looked up at her as she sat across from him. “Anyplace easy to find me is a poor place to meditate. May I ask why you felt such an urgent need to meet? I would have seen you this evening.” He gave Coco his usual unreadable look.

“I needed to say thank you after yesterday. I would have said it last night, but you were asleep when I got back and gone when I woke up. I didn’t want to hear what you said. It wasn’t enjoyable, but it was necessary. I thought about it for a bit and talked with Velvet and Fox—well, mostly talked with Fox. I haven’t talked to you yet. I’m sorry for being arrogant and unfair, and I want to be better. How can I make amends with you?”

Yatsuhashi straightened up, a smile touching the corners of his mouth. “You already have.”

Coco blinked. “That was…easy. Are you sure there’s nothing you want to discuss?”

“No. You actually thought about what I said and acted on it. I’m sure you’ll slip up and make mistakes, but that’s how everyone improves. You do something right, you do it wrong a lot of times, and you learn to do it a little better thanks to all the times you’ve gotten it wrong. I think you’ll do just fine in the long-term, just like the rest of us.”

Coco gave him a wry look. “You’re awful quick to trust.”

“You’ve shown me your heart’s in the right place. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have managed to put Velvet in such good spirits last night.”

Coco smiled to herself. She leaned forward.

“So tell me: How many siblings _do_ you have?”

…

Coco grimaced, unloading the rifle and putting it back in its case. She had hit _some_ of the targets downrange but all of her shots had landed towards their outer rings. She looked down at a page in a notebook and struck through ‘Sniper Rifle’.

 _Needs too much training for me to be field-ready. Machine pistols don’t pack enough punch, a grenade launcher might cause friendly-fire incidents, laser rifles need high-end resources…_ She ran her hand through her hair, thinking as she returned the gun back to the Armory’s stockpile of basic template weapons. Beacon provided a good-sized assortment of them as foundations for students who wanted to retool their fighting style, or for those who possessed no personal weapons upon admission.

Once she had stored the rifle, Coco sat at a workbench and went over the list of attributes she wanted once again, trying to find the perfect design. She took a long pull from a thermos of espresso, frowning at the paper.

“You seriously need to get a life, Adel.”

Coco looked up to see Fox walking up to her workbench, looking slightly damp and smelling like a gym bag.

“I hear the guys on Kura’s team aren’t taken if you need distractions.”

“I don’t have the time,” said Coco.

“I bet you always say that.”

“I do, but I also don’t typically need to reinvent my fighting style almost from scratch. It’s not exactly something I want to half-ass.”

“But you could.”

Coco glared at Fox.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Fox said holding up his hands. “Your dedication is admirable, but I don’t get why you care so much. With your family name, the kind of cash you have, you could do anything with your life. Why choose the most dangerous job in Remnant? The rich girl life too boring?”

“There is no rich girl life.”

“I’m sure Weiss Schnee says the same thing when she’s too busy training to party with high society.”

Coco turned in her seat and opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and took out her scroll. She pulled up a new window and flicked through it, swiping her fingers over multiple pictures before stretching the screen out to its full size and turning it around towards Fox. A result from a CCT network image search displayed on the screen, showing a mansion atop an ocean cliff. The drive leading up to the front door was bordered by immaculate verdant lawns and rows of well-manicured topiaries.

“The mansion of Julien Adel, construction mogul and decades-long rival of Kristoff Schnee.”

“I sort of remember that vendetta from world history class,” said Fox. “Man, your dad really robbed the cradle when he met your mom didn’t he?”

“Julien is my grandfather,” Coco said, flicking through the scroll again. “My father _—Rémi_ Adel—lives here:”

Coco turned her scroll around again. Fox raised an eyebrow.

The house in the new picture was much smaller, a cozy bungalow in a slightly larger clearing in a forest. There was no major damage to the house but the outside looked incredibly worn, giving the impression the owners had relied on skill instead of resources in maintaining it. An imposing man and a lithe woman stood in the foreground of the picture. A young girl with short brown hair sat on the man’s shoulders and grinned while the woman cradled an infant in her arms.

“I lived there from when I was two until I went to Sanctum,” Coco said.

“So is living in a run-down house the rich person version of wearing pre-torn jeans?”

Coco rolled her eyes. “There are several ways rich people are the same as anyone else. They waste time on pointless distractions, get drunk, and fight and disown each other over the pettiest things, just like normal people. My birth mother died when I was just a year old. Later, when my father found someone else he cared about, my grandfather wrote him out of his will and cut him off from almost everything he owned. Take another look at my stepmother and see if you can guess why.”

Fox looked back at the woman in the picture. A pair of short antlers poked out of her hair like a sylvan tiara.

“Julien Adel is controlling and close-minded,” Coco said, pocketing her scroll. “He _destroyed_ my father. Taking his money was nothing compared to what he did to his reputation. He still works in construction but he can’t get promoted past being a foreman. Once in a while they’ll humor him and let him negotiate contracts with clients if all the other suits are busy, but except for those rare moments of elevated responsibility he’s been trapped at that level for my entire life.”

“You’re telling me your obsession with fashion is because you miss having money?” Fox said, his voice dripping with boredom.

Coco shook her head. “I don’t remember being rich, it was before I said my first words. What I do remember is that no client Papa worked for saw the same Rémi Adel my stepbrother and I did. They just saw a big man who knew how to use tools and assumed he was a lesser person, one step above a faunus in their eyes. The only times people almost treated him as an equal were the few days he wore his one good suit and worked in the office instead of on the job site.”

Coco stood, stretching as she walked towards the template weapons. She picked out a shotgun and turned it over in her hands.

“There’s nothing wrong with hard or unpleasant work. But hard work isn’t enough if you want the world to recognize your value. You need to look the part and you need to force them to witness your greatness. That’s why I care so much about my appearance. That’s why I push myself so hard. That’s why I want to be a huntress.”

Coco set the gun down on her workbench and stared at it in silence. After a long pause, Fox leaned over her shoulder to look at it.

“A shotgun-based weapon isn’t going to balance out our team’s weapon dynamics.”

Coco sighed, irritated. “Everything I’ve thought of lacks power or costs too much to maintain.”

“Have you considered an assault rifle base? Those were always popular with Haven kids.”

“The problem with that is I’ll either be carrying a lot of weak rounds, or a handful of heavy ones.”

“You could use a forge brick.”

Coco turned around in her chair and gave Fox a wry look. “Not that I need to ask you, but pretend I’m an idiot.”

Fox smirked. “New Atlas tech, made it into the other kingdoms a couple years back. It uses cheap dust, a base block of material, and SDC technobabble to power and feed a tiny ammunition factory that replenishes spare rounds in the field.”

“If these things are so great, why haven’t I seen them around Beacon? Expensive?”

“They’re not cheap, but you could probably get a good deal on one. The problem is that even though their weight seems to violate the laws of physics, forge bricks are still super heavy. They’re intended for mounted weapons and heavy artillery. But maybe an enterprising huntress with more strength than finesse could find a creative use for one.”

Coco paused, then nodded. “Maybe she could.”

Fox shrugged. As he turned to leave, Coco called to him.

“Why are you so helpful now?”

Fox stopped and turned back. “As fun as it would be to humiliate you, I don’t want our rematch to be quick and easy. A curbstomp victory wouldn’t demonstrate anything about my abilities. It might even make me look weak.”

The two of them exchanged a wry look before Fox left. Coco turned back to the workbench, pulling up the specs on several models of forge bricks on the CCT network. She spent hours scribbling various ideas down, the design slowly taking shape, her pace increasing as she refined her design.

Well after dark, Coco stood, smiling down at what would become her new weapon.

“You and me are going to rule the world,” she said to her crude blueprint, grinning.

…

The sun peeked over the spires of Beacon as Coco finished what seemed like her 1000th pull-up, dropping from the branch. She finished her morning exercises with a few laps around the courtyard, jogging back towards the dormitory after she finished. Back inside, she darted towards the elevator as it was closing, sticking her hand in the door just in time to make it stop. She parted the doors a foot apart and squeezed through.

“You know there’s an ‘open door’ button, frie—“she stopped, seeing Fox slumped against the wall of the elevator like he was ready to slide down it at any second, his hair matted with sweat. He seemed so intent on remaining standing and gasping for air that he hadn’t noticed her enter the elevator. The door closed and Coco leaned against the wall to Fox’s right.

“You know you don’t _have_ to exercise as early as I do, right?” she asked.

Fox finally noticed her, turning his head. “Practice under the same conditions as your opponent,” he said, his words broken up by his heavy breathing.

“So how much closer are you to beating me? This much?” Coco pinched her index finger and her thumb together and held them out to Fox.

Fox flipped her the bird but he was slowly shaking his head, softly chuckling. Coco chuckled back and they rode the car up.

…

**Two Months Later**

The sounds of dozens of scrolls chiming in unison rang throughout the bullhead. The faculty had evaluated each team after the morning’s joint first-year mission, unofficially ranking them prior to the actual qualifying matches for the Vytal Tournament.

Coco pulled out her scroll to view the results along with the rest of her classmates. She frowned. Team COAL had taken the top slot, unsurprisingly. Somehow Team JETT had managed second place, passing Teams KNGT and AQUA respectively. SLTE had secured fifth place, leaving CFVY in sixth. Coco frowned. They weren’t last, and their ranking at this stage didn’t automatically bar them from the tournament, but they would have to fashion a very convincing argument to persuade the faculty to let them try.

Coco looked up, gauging the other teams. It hadn’t been anyone’s best day. Every huntsman and huntress on board sported torn, dirty clothes and bruises and scrapes from the mission, save for Cormag of Team COAL, but again that was expected. COAL were quietly pleased with themselves, while JETT looked like they were struggling to contain their excitement regarding their own dumb luck. Everyone else looked exhausted, sullen, or disappointed.

Coco even felt tension in her own team. They hadn’t lived up to their performance in training the past few months. Fox was irritable, shifting in his seat and inspecting his wrist blades for the thirtieth time. Velvet was her wringing her hands, staring across the bullhead at Azul dressing down one of her teammates. Even Yatsuhashi was grimacing. Coco clenched her fists and screwed her eyes shut, breathing deeply. She wanted nothing more than to explode on the first person to tell her what she should have done, how she should have led.

 _But,_ she asked herself, _would that accomplish anything useful?_ She exhaled, letting the tension flow away from her body. She was still running hot, but her agitation was manageable now. She replayed the events in her head, evaluating the entire mission, deciding exactly what she would say, then opened her eyes.

She looked over and saw Velvet giving her a cautious look. This had been CFVY’s worst performance since the obstacle course. Coco flashed her a little smile, then stood up, steadying herself with a ceiling handle and facing her team.

“Okay guys, debrief time, just like after sparring.”

Fox grumbled. “Today sucked, end of story.”                          

“And tomorrow will suck too if we don’t recap, we’ve been over this. Two minutes of your time and you can go back to sulking.”

Fox scowled but didn’t say anything.

Coco looked to Yatsuhashi. “You did good today big guy. No serious mistakes on your part, just bad luck when the grimm got through the south flank. You made a judgement call and it didn’t work out, you’ll get ‘em next time.”

They exchanged a nod, then Coco looked to Fox.

“Fox, your stamina still needs a lot of work—” Fox started to say something, but Coco held up her free hand—“but compared to our last field mission, you lasted forever. And you actually swapped out with another front-line fighter when you got winded instead of trying to tough it out like an idiot.” Coco smirked. “Good hustle.” Fox returned the look Coco gave him and lounged back in his seat.

Coco turned to Velvet, pausing to hang her sunglasses from the neck of her shirt. “That was a hell of a way to pop your cherry. Not just your first kill, but your first three from that pack of beowolves that showed up towards the end. And that was _after_ you spent eight minutes kiting that deathstalker for us and Team KNGT. Velvet, you get most-improved-huntsman today; you’re excused from team conditioning tomorrow.”

Velvet’s face lit up and Coco mussed her hair.

“Hey!” Fox said “How’s that fair?”

“Velvet earned it, and like I said: _your_ stamina still needs work. Which reminds me, the Team Sandbag runs double laps tomorrow.”

Fox groaned.

“And today’s Sandbag Award goes to…” Coco paused, then rubbed the back of her neck, uncharacteristically sheepish. “Actually, I think this one goes to me.”

The rest of CFVY looked at their leader in surprise. Fox leaned forward in his seat, raising an eyebrow.

“Surely I misheard that,” he said.

“I meant what I said earlier. You and Velvet showed solid improvement, and I can’t find any significant fault with Yatsuhashi’s performance.” Coco’s cheeks flushed a little. “On the other hand, my temper was running high today and I let myself get drawn out of position a few times. I can’t be hard on you guys for screwing up if I don’t hold myself to the same standards, can I?”

Fox opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the pilot’s voice came over the loudspeaker, instructing the huntsmen to sit down prior to the bullhead making its final approach. Coco looked up, then shrugged.

“That’s it guys, as you were,” she said before sitting back down next to Yatsuhashi. The tall boy gave her a nudge, flashing her a thumbs-up when she glanced over. Two seats over, she watched Fox giving Velvet additional praise. He lowered his voice and murmured something that made her giggle and playfully hit his shoulder.

And across the aircraft Coco picked out a familiar voice murmuring to another huntress, so low Coco barely heard it.

“I never thought I’d say this Azul,” Kura said. “But you may want to observe how Coco leads her team.”

It took all of Coco’s will not to break into a grin.

…

Velvet stirred in her bed, pulling the covers closer around her and giving a little satisfied sigh. After the mission, all of CFVY had collapsed into bed immediately after washing off. Early the next morning she had half-woken when the others had left for conditioning, then promptly drifted back to sleep. Despite all the aches and scrapes from the mission, Velvet couldn’t remember the last time she had slept so long or sound, and she wanted to make the most of it, spending the rest of the day half-sleeping or totally out.

She smiled to herself. Her team had gotten off to a rough start, but after the last two months she wouldn’t have picked anyone else. Personalities still clashed, but conflict had subsided to a level considered acceptable—even expected—for a team of huntsmen. Best of all they weren’t party animals outside of missions like Team COAL, or hyperactive clowns like Team JETT. Between Yatsuhashi’s stoic demeanor, and Coco and Fox’s competition to be tougher and cooler than each other, no one could ever accuse Team CFVY of being loud or obnoxious.

The door flew open, slamming into the wall.

“IT’S HE-ERE!” Coco shouted, almost squealing with excitement.

Velvet screamed and tumbled onto the floor in a heap of sheets and comforter. She struggled for a moment before she managed to poke her head and an arm out of the tangle of bedclothes.

“Bloody hell!” Velvet said. “What was that for?” Coco squatted down to place a mailing crate big enough to comfortably ship two of her in the middle of the floor before looking up at Velvet.

“Oh good!” Coco said. “You’re finally awake!”

“Only because you woke me up.”

“I said you didn’t have to exercise, not that you could lie in bed all day. It’s three o’clock sleepyhead.” She gave Velvet a wink.

Velvet opened her mouth to say something, but settled for just palming her forehead. Coco was rummaging through a drawer for something when Fox and Yatsuhashi entered the room.

“What’s that?” Fox asked.

“I believe it’s a large parcel,” said Yatsuhashi.

Fox narrowed his eyes at him. “I liked you better before you tried to be funny.” Yatsuhashi just smiled in reply.

Coco thrust her hand in the air in triumph, clutching a claw hammer, and started to pry open the lid of the crate. Velvet finally managed to extricate herself from the covers and walked over to get a closer look.

“This,” Coco said, “is where all my savings and the cash from selling four of my favorite outfits went. It’s mostly extra odds and ends, but the main purchase”—she paused, pushing off the lid, and reaching inside—“is right here.”

Coco emerged holding a black leather bag with brass studs on the bottom and what looked like rifle rounds lining the shoulder strap.

“A handbag.” Fox said, his voice flat.

Coco nodded eagerly, grinning like a child who just received permission to eat candy for dinner.

“You shelled out God knows how much lien for a handbag that comes with its own house? I think you’ve finally cracked.”

“Nope, couldn’t be saner.”

Fox reached over, snatching the shoulder strap. “I’ll be the judge of—AUUGGHHH!” The second the strap left Coco’s hand, the bag yanked Fox down and it slammed him to the floor with a loud crash. He rose to his knees, giving the bag and Coco a puzzled look. She was trying and failing to hold back laughter.

“It’s not _just_ a handbag.”

Coco helped Fox up, then hefted the bag with both hands. “Come on, let’s go outside.”

…

A few minutes later they were standing in a grassy section of the grounds just off the courtyard, arranged around Coco in a loose semicircle.

“Fox gave me a couple suggestions for designing a new weapon a few months back,” Coco said, addressing her teammates. “I drafted a rough design, contacted a weaponsmith in Mistral, and met with him to make some final adjustments before he built it. Guys—”

Coco planted one foot forward and clicked a switch in the handle. Panels slid away and folded back, a large drum dropped out of the bottom of the bag, and a long cylinder of rotary barrels extended from the front of the bag. Coco seized a new handle that had appeared towards the massive gun’s front and swung it to one side.

“—I’d like you to meet _Belle Mort_.”

The rest of CFVY stared at Coco’s new weapon, the afternoon sun reflecting off the metal.

“Gold-plating,” Fox said, examining the minigun. “Did you get earrings and a choker to match?”

“Are you not impressed?” Coco asked.

“No, it’s very nice. I just think you overpaid for a decorative weapon.”

Coco pushed her sunglasses to her forehead to lock eyes with Fox. “If you want a rematch, you could just ask.”

“But this way is more fun.”

They exchanged grins, then looked towards their teammates.

“You want to play judge Yatsu?” Fox asked. The tall boy shrugged, then indicated two spots opposite each other on the grass. Coco chose a spot twenty paces to Yatsuhashi’s left, while Fox chose a place twenty to his right. Fox clanged his blades together once and assumed a fighter’s stance. Coco swung _Belle Mort_ to point at Fox and revved the barrels. Velvet just shook her head slowly, a smile creeping across her face. Yatsuhashi raised one hand to the sky and counted.

“Three, two, one!”


End file.
